Real Estate News

Toronto housing market sees a shift to mid rise development

There’s a subtle shift under way in the Greater Toronto Area’s presale condominium market in 2018: As developers are launching fewer towering projects designed to woo investors, they are finding there’s still a strong market for people looking to pay a little more money for a larger, family-friendly unit in neighbourhoods outside the downtown core.

In 2017, developers set records for launching projects and units: 105 projects comprising 32,813 units were presold, compared with 2016’s 81 projects with 16,732 units, according to data collected by Urbanation Inc. The vast majority were high-rise projects that typically feature higher volumes of low-cost studio and one-bedroom apartments. Those are the kind of units investors looking for a piece of the market have traditionally snapped up, oftentimes renting their condo or looking to flip it on the equity appreciation. But there has been a slowdown in the number of projects wooing that buyer.